6. Write 600 words or more on something about anything in the league that interests you. It could be related to statistics, a league issue that you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 600 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.
Two things are happening at the same time. First, this is the last offseason task I will have to write before my job finally lets me not have to bother, which is great. Second, the country I live in has decided to go off the rails. In honor of this confluence, I will be taking a look at how the ISFL's resident unelected, secretive judiciary board/smoke-filled room/old boy's club, the Appeals Committee, has historically ruled.
Over the league's entire existence, the Appeals Committee has decided 27 cases, almost all of which were appeals from league members recently handed down punishments from Head Office. 16 of these 27 saw the original punishment upheld in its entirety. All but two of these 16 cases were ruled upon unanimously. These cases include:
- Noble's third and final league punishment, a multi-league multi scandal that saw him finally banned from the ISFL entirely.
- Buttersquanch getting busted a second time for tampering and getting banned from all league jobs for three seasons.
- Valor getting busted for tampering.
- Jiggly getting busted for tampering, an interesting aftermath of the Chicago nuclear meltdown that I sadly forgot to include in my article.
- Jeffie43 getting busted for tampering. Man there is a theme going on here isn't there? I will note that this is one of two cases where a dissenting voice can be found amongst the appellate crew when upholding a ruling.
- Retrospace111 getting busted for tampering, around a year before he ended up getting banned for an unrelated multi scandal.
- Dallas not being allowed to use extra filler bots for backup linemen. This is an interesting anomaly, since it wasn't related to a punishment but rather a ruling by Head Office. This is also the only other instance of dissent.
- New Orleans getting punished for not updating their OL bots to their benefit.
- CLG Rampage getting busted for being mean. (this is a joke don't come at me)
- Kansas City getting punished for starting an inactive player, WannaBeFinn, over active ones.
- An unsuccessful appeal on behalf of a concerned citizen to stop HO's ruling on signing inactive players after the trade deadline. This is a snoozer tbh
- Yellowknife getting punished for not buying an OL in time, and JKortesi81 getting feisty because people keep appealing stupid stuff like this.
- LB3737 getting busted for tampering.
- A complicated situation around old friend WannaBeFinn trying to position switch but getting called up.
- Big Edd being annoying.
- Faelax getting busted for trying to pull a YoungTB.
- Lane Frost getting busted for being real mean..
Is there a pattern here? No, not really. Yes, the appeals team has upheld more rulings than they've changed, but a fair bit of these appeals are just people being mad that they got caught breaking the rules and have to face the music.
So what sort of cases did they reduce punishments for? Well:
- Kolbe leaking a draft via the media, which technically wasn't in the rulebook
- San Jose being the victim of Er's shenanigans
- Butters' first punishment being reduced to fit precedent
- DeadlyPlayer's fine being reduced to fit precedent
- Yellowknife's twitter account's fine being reduced to fit precedent
- Tijuana's fine being reduced because the DSFL commish (former Tijuana GM) told them their illegal actions were ok. Appeals team recommended further investigation that never materialized
- shipwreckrising trying to update from the grave, which technically wasn't in the rulebook
- LB3737's fine being reduced because it probably wasn't even tampering
- Leafer's TPE being restored because he didn't do anything wrong
- ZootTX's trying to sign contracts from the grave, which technically wasn't in the rulebook
- Vorshayla being mean but it was a while ago
Most of these involve reductions by either reading the rulebook or by deferring to past precedent. I wish some other judicial institutions could take some notes.
Two things are happening at the same time. First, this is the last offseason task I will have to write before my job finally lets me not have to bother, which is great. Second, the country I live in has decided to go off the rails. In honor of this confluence, I will be taking a look at how the ISFL's resident unelected, secretive judiciary board/smoke-filled room/old boy's club, the Appeals Committee, has historically ruled.
Over the league's entire existence, the Appeals Committee has decided 27 cases, almost all of which were appeals from league members recently handed down punishments from Head Office. 16 of these 27 saw the original punishment upheld in its entirety. All but two of these 16 cases were ruled upon unanimously. These cases include:
- Noble's third and final league punishment, a multi-league multi scandal that saw him finally banned from the ISFL entirely.
- Buttersquanch getting busted a second time for tampering and getting banned from all league jobs for three seasons.
- Valor getting busted for tampering.
- Jiggly getting busted for tampering, an interesting aftermath of the Chicago nuclear meltdown that I sadly forgot to include in my article.
- Jeffie43 getting busted for tampering. Man there is a theme going on here isn't there? I will note that this is one of two cases where a dissenting voice can be found amongst the appellate crew when upholding a ruling.
- Retrospace111 getting busted for tampering, around a year before he ended up getting banned for an unrelated multi scandal.
- Dallas not being allowed to use extra filler bots for backup linemen. This is an interesting anomaly, since it wasn't related to a punishment but rather a ruling by Head Office. This is also the only other instance of dissent.
- New Orleans getting punished for not updating their OL bots to their benefit.
- CLG Rampage getting busted for being mean. (this is a joke don't come at me)
- Kansas City getting punished for starting an inactive player, WannaBeFinn, over active ones.
- An unsuccessful appeal on behalf of a concerned citizen to stop HO's ruling on signing inactive players after the trade deadline. This is a snoozer tbh
- Yellowknife getting punished for not buying an OL in time, and JKortesi81 getting feisty because people keep appealing stupid stuff like this.
- LB3737 getting busted for tampering.
- A complicated situation around old friend WannaBeFinn trying to position switch but getting called up.
- Big Edd being annoying.
- Faelax getting busted for trying to pull a YoungTB.
- Lane Frost getting busted for being real mean..
Is there a pattern here? No, not really. Yes, the appeals team has upheld more rulings than they've changed, but a fair bit of these appeals are just people being mad that they got caught breaking the rules and have to face the music.
So what sort of cases did they reduce punishments for? Well:
- Kolbe leaking a draft via the media, which technically wasn't in the rulebook
- San Jose being the victim of Er's shenanigans
- Butters' first punishment being reduced to fit precedent
- DeadlyPlayer's fine being reduced to fit precedent
- Yellowknife's twitter account's fine being reduced to fit precedent
- Tijuana's fine being reduced because the DSFL commish (former Tijuana GM) told them their illegal actions were ok. Appeals team recommended further investigation that never materialized
- shipwreckrising trying to update from the grave, which technically wasn't in the rulebook
- LB3737's fine being reduced because it probably wasn't even tampering
- Leafer's TPE being restored because he didn't do anything wrong
- ZootTX's trying to sign contracts from the grave, which technically wasn't in the rulebook
- Vorshayla being mean but it was a while ago
Most of these involve reductions by either reading the rulebook or by deferring to past precedent. I wish some other judicial institutions could take some notes.
Transgender lesbian, S15 veteran, media extraordinaire, and the sim's punching bag. Fascists and bigots are welcome to fuck off.
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For Your Reading Consideration:
Before the Butchers | The Jungle
The Giving Tree | Volume II | Volume III
A Winter of Discontent | Volume II
The Rockiest Road | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | Finale
Two Essays on Unfree Agency: On Agents | On Contracts
Eclipse of the Honey Moon | Volume II
Gemini Media Awards:
S39 | S40 | S41 | S42 | S43 | S44 | S45 | S46 | S47
All Winners
— — —
— — —
— — —
For Your Reading Consideration:
Before the Butchers | The Jungle
The Giving Tree | Volume II | Volume III
A Winter of Discontent | Volume II
The Rockiest Road | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | Finale
Two Essays on Unfree Agency: On Agents | On Contracts
Eclipse of the Honey Moon | Volume II
Gemini Media Awards:
S39 | S40 | S41 | S42 | S43 | S44 | S45 | S46 | S47
All Winners
— — —